Iran holds critical nuclear talks with US, insists deal is within reach | Iran

Iran held critical talks on its nuclear program with the US on Thursday, insisting a deal is within reach as long as Washington sticks to its willingness to grant Iran’s symbolic right to enrich uranium, allow Tehran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and not impose controls on Iran’s ballistic missile program.

The three conditions for success are considered critical by Iranian diplomats, but it remains unclear whether Trump accepts these parameters.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that it would be a “big problem” if Iran did not negotiate on missiles.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is on his way to Geneva with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for the talks, has already accepted these principles in the two previous rounds of indirect talks, Iranian officials claim. But it remains possible that Trump could overturn these conditions, a move that would inevitably lead to a conflict between the two nations that could quickly consume the entire Middle East.

It is understood that Witkoff only asked that Iran agree to enrichment at less than 5% purity, roughly the level it accepted in the 2015 nuclear agreement and well below weapon grade.

A source in touch with Iran’s negotiating team said members were surprised by the loose terms of the proposal submitted by Kushner and Witkoff last week as a first step. The key request, this source said, was that Iran agree to limit enrichment to 5% and convert the program to civilian use.

But for his part, the source said there were no offers for immediate sanctions relief or diplomatic ties: Iran would be left in economic shackles. Still, the next step, the source said, would be negotiations to gradually lift sanctions and open dialogue.

Before leaving for Geneva, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the goal was to “reach a fair and just agreement in the shortest possible time.”

“Our fundamental positions and beliefs are absolutely clear. Iran will never, under any circumstances, seek to develop nuclear weapons; at the same time, we Iranians will never renounce our right to benefit from peaceful nuclear technology,” he added.

“Achieving an agreement is within reach, but only if diplomacy is prioritized.”

In his Address on the State of the Uniondelivered early in the morning Tehran time, Trump sharply veered away from the negotiating path Witkoff took when he warned about Iran’s ballistic missiles reaching Europe, accused Iran of being the number one sponsor of terrorism and reiterated that Iran had not promised to forge nuclear weapons. He also claimed that 32,000 protesters have been killed by the Iranian authorities in recent demonstrations.

The US president added that Iran had failed to heed a warning to make “no future efforts” to rebuild its nuclear weapons programs after last June’s US attacks on the country’s nuclear facilities. “We wiped it out and they want to start over,” Trump said. He added that Iran is “at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions.”

Just two hours before the speech, Araghchi wrote on social media that under no circumstances will Iran ever develop a nuclear weapon.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei tried to compare Trump to Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister. He accused Trump and his administration of waging a “disinformation + misinformation campaign” against Iran.

“Whatever they claim regarding Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s ballistic missiles and the number of casualties during January’s unrest is simply the repetition of ‘big lies’.” Baqaei written on.

After a information session with Rubio, Jim Himes, a senior Democrat on the US House Intelligence Committee, said: “We have not heard a single compelling reason why now is a time to start another war in the Middle East.”

For Iran, the presence of Raphael Grossi, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, at the Geneva talks with mediators from Oman is seen as significant, as Grossi has the legal authority to declare whether he thinks any access Iran offers to verify its commitments on enrichment fits the inspectorate’s needs.

Araghchi’s team is also willing to find ways for Trump to argue the deal he struck is better than the one negotiated by Barack Obama in 2015. Tehran admits that this is a prerequisite for Trump in terms of US domestic politics.

Before heading to Geneva, Grossi said the US had made it clear they were not going to argue for weeks or months. “A very dangerous situation is developing against the background of these negotiations,” he said, referring to the large and now complete US military build-up in the region.

Araghchi said in an interview with CBS this week that “enrichment is our right … this technology is dear to us.” The US was not clear whether its demand for no enrichment inside Iran would apply to enrichment for medical purposes.

Speaking to the Iranian newspaper Entekhab, Hamzeh Safavi, a professor of political science at the University of Tehran, said: “Iran is unlikely to accept any enrichment, but it is likely to accept symbolic enrichment. What is important for Iran is the right to enrich and that the issue of enrichment does not become a tool for hostage-taking.”

An Iranian agreement on the suspension of enrichment is not unprecedented. In 2003, then-secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Hassan Rouhani, agreed with France, Germany and the UK to suspend all uranium enrichment and processing activities and to allow rapid inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog.

The Iranian negotiating team asked to present specific proposals at the Geneva talks will seek irreversible sanctions relief, such as the release of frozen Iranian assets held abroad.

Across Iran, protests continued at universities for the fifth day, almost two months after protests against the regime began..